West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has come down heavily on the Central government after Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids at the residence of I-PAC chief Pratik Jain and its Salt Lake office, signaling that the raids were meant to weaken the Trinamool Congress and daring the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to fight it politically to win the state. Mamata Banerjee also reportedly stormed the residence of Pratik Jain during the raids and alleged that the agency was “confiscating” TMC’s documents and hard disks containing details of party candidates for the upcoming Assembly election.
In a fiery response to the ED raids, Mamata Banerjee said, “I dare BJP to fight us politically if they want to win Bengal.”
She accused the ED of trying to take away hard disks, mobile phones, candidate lists and internal strategy documents of the ruling party.
“ED transferred TMC data, poll strategies into their system during raids at I-PAC office, which is a crime. Assembly polls will pass if TMC has to draw up election plans afresh,” Mamata said after visiting I-PAC’s Salt lake office during ED raids.
Emerging out of Pratik Jain’s residence with a green folder, Mamata Banerjee said she had “brought back” the party’s documents and hard disks containing the Trinamool election plan.
Mamata Banerjee also alleged that ED started the search operation at 6 am when nobody was present at their Salt lake office.
“TMC registered political party, pays income tax; Center cannot bulldoze us using money and muscle power,” the chief minister said, accusing the BJP of “deleting names through SIR, raiding offices of political parties.”
Asserting that her party was in fact exercising restraint, Mamata Banerjee asked, “What will happen if we reciprocate this ED search by raiding BJP party offices in Bengal; we are exercising restraint,” warning that the restraint should not be mistaken as “weakness”.
“Our restraint, courtesy in the wake of this attack should not be mistaken for our weakness,” she said. The TMC chief also announced that the party will organize protests across West Bengal on Thursday, Janaury 8, afternoon “against ED loot of TMC documents during raids at I-PAC office.”
